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James Bland Redevelopment

Background

The James Bland redevelopment is an 8.5 acre site within the Braddock East planning area and is comprised of five City blocks. A proposal by the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) and Eakin Youngentob (EYA) for redevelopment of James Bland into a mixed income community was approved by the City Council in October 2008. The approved plan proposes demolition of the existing 194 public housing units and construction of 379 new residential units, of which one third (134 units) will be public housing units and two thirds (245 units) will be market rate units. In addition, the City will be working with the developer to purchase a portion of the market rate units for affordable/workforce housing, thus creating a truly mixed income community.

All five blocks of James Bland are located within the Parker Gray historic district. Staff and the applicant worked extensively to ensure the architecture of the new buildings would blend with the existing residences in style and scale. The development will be predominately townhouse which is typical of the surrounding neighborhood, but two of the blocks along Route 1 will include four-story multifamily buildings. A new City park will be created as part of this development. The concept plan for the park was reveiwed by the Parks and Recreation Commission at their September 23, 2010 meeting.

The five block redevelopment will occur in five phases with each block as one phase. Final buildout is anticipated to be completed by 2016. Phase 1 construction began in Spring 2010 and is now complete. Phase 2 construction will be completed in Summer 2013, and Phase 3 construction is currently underway.